Downside protection for when market is near all time high and or trade war posturing going on...

Knock yourself out, but as a sell side options trader I can tell you whitepoplar is right, payoffs not great if your doing it purely as a hedge. It makes more sense if you have a specific view on vols, in which case you don't really want to be buying them repeatedly, a few tenors at most, but really your prob better off just reducing your exposure. And selling otm to finance just makes things worse, it's something a bank would tell you to do to make more commissions from you

ATM finance otm, not the other way around... you are short volatility usually.